(Post by: Michelle Hobbs)
As our family prepares for our annual Seder meal, I have been thinking about what that final Passover meal must have been like for Jesus and His disciples. I think about the family who allowed them to use a room in their home, the disciples likely thinking it was just another Passover, and Jesus’ unfathomable burden knowing that it was no ordinary Passover meal.
The thought that I cannot shake, is Judas, his betrayal of Jesus, and his fateful response to that betrayal.
For most of us, Judas has been considered a necessary “bad guy” in the Passion Week story and how the crucifixion had to play out. He has been cast as the unfortunate character chosen to be the villain in this epic tragedy. I have tended to look at Judas that way throughout Scripture, not just during the days leading up to the cross.
This year, however, I have been carefully contemplating Judas, his position as a disciple, and his response to his sin. In taking a closer look at Judas, I have come to the conclusion that Jesus did not chose him to be the bad guy; Jesus chose him to love him and to give him the same opportunities, power, and authority over evil as all the other disciples.
In Matthew 10:1, Jesus called His twelve disciples to Him and gave them authority to drive out impure spirits and to heal every disease and sickness. Scripture goes on to list each of the twelve by name, including Judas. Throughout Jesus’ ministry, teaching, healing, miracle working, and just hanging out with the guys, Judas was included and treated just like everyone else.
In fact, at this final Passover feast, Jesus got down on His knees in front of Judas and washed his feet; the feet that Jesus knew would carry Judas off into the darkness to find the Sanhedrin and lead a cohort of soldiers to arrest Him.
Can you just imagine the pleading in Jesus’ eyes as he looked up at Judas? Not necessarily pleading that Judas would change his mind and not lead those soldiers to Him, but that Judas would understand the new thing that Jesus had tried to teach him these past three years they had spent together.
Even in the Garden of Gethsemane, as Judas ushers Jesus’ enemies in, Jesus does not refer to Judas as a traitor, does not call out his betrayal, but calls Judas “friend.” (Matthew 26: 50)
You see, I think, even in that final, pivotal moment that Jesus had to speak to Judas, He was still conveying His love to him, pleading with Judas to embrace the gift of the New Covenant Jesus was about to die to bestow on all of us. Judas included.
Here is the true tragedy of Judas, not that he betrayed Jesus, Peter did that as well, but that Judas did not accept the grace and forgiveness Jesus offered. He did not choose to live in the New Covenant but instead chose to die in the Old Covenant.
Examine the difference between how Judas and Peter handled their sin of betraying Jesus. Peter, somehow, recognized the hope of forgiveness if he simply waited on Jesus to grant it. I don’t think he fully understood the resurrection was coming in a few short days, but He must have understood that the old way of doing things was not going to work for him anymore. He had been changed, transformed, reborn. Fully reliant on Jesus.
Judas, on the other hand, ran back to the Temple, to the Priests, to the old way of doing things, begging for forgiveness that they could not grant. “I have sinned, he said, for I have betrayed innocent blood.” “What is that to us? they replied. That is your responsibility.” (Matthew 27: 4).
The Old Covenant died with Jesus. The Priests no longer had authority over sin. They could not offer forgiveness. They had no hope to give. Jesus’ New Covenant was the only way forward.
And so, Judas, clinging to his old, dead self, fell into despair and hanged himself (Matthew 27: 5).
Oh, if he only would have held on a few more days. If only he would have embraced the New Covenant grace Jesus so desperately wanted to give him. I have no doubt Jesus would have restored Judas just as He restored Peter.
Friends, let us learn this lesson well. Jesus can walk beside us, teach us, wash our feet, and call us friend, but we can still choose to cling to our old ways, and end up in despair.
Instead, let us be like Peter and repent, waiting on Jesus and running to Him to receive the fullness of grace and restoration only He can provide!
The Few 
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